For the Life of a Girl
by Martial Arts Master
Summary: When a middle-aged woman helps to save the lives of the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins, she decides they can entertain her sick daughter. But No Heart has other plans...I've replaced the first chapter following the advice of a reviewer. Please review!
1. Part One

For the Life of a Girl Part One  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
  
Care Bears, Care Bear Cousins, and all related character copyrighted by American Greetings, DiC, and Nelvana. I made up Mrs. Oio and her daughter Valerie, however. I am replacing the previous version of this chapter with this version after doing research suggested by a reviewer. Now, on with the story!  
  
***  
  
It was a gloomy, rainy day, as Mrs. Oio (pronounced OH-EE-OH) was walking home with her groceries.  
  
This, Mrs. Oio thought bitterly, was the perfect day to match her gloomy, rainy mood.  
  
Mrs. Oio was a middle-aged woman, with an unusual hair color that was blondish-brownish-grayish. Chalk that up to genetic heritage and the age factor that turns most hair gray eventually.  
  
She had a daughter, Valerie, but Valerie was very, very sick.  
  
Valerie, you see, had a disease that mankind could not cure.  
  
Valerie...had _AIDS_.  
  
She didn't get it by having sex. When Valerie was a little girl, she had been playing with an adult babysitter who'd been babysitting her. That babysitter, however, had been a very irresponsible one, and had allowed her to play with a knife, obviously a sign of great stupidity on the babysitter's part. Valerie had ended up cutting them both, and some of the babysitter's blood got into Valerie's bloodstream. By sheer horrible luck, the babysitter had HIV, which would not develop into AIDS until years later.  
  
The babysitter, incidentally, was never hired again when others learned of her mistake, but the babysitting service was so embarassed that their screening programs had failed to detect the babysitter's lack of "knife judgement" that they erased the babysitter from their records, while conducting an investigation to find out how the babysitter had managed to pass the required tests while not knowing that little children shouldn't play with knives.  
  
The service found out that they had forgotten to include knife questions in their tests. Needless to say, they never made a mistake like that again.  
  
And so, Valeria got the HIV virus. It didn't develop into AIDS until now, ten years later.  
  
Valerie had been eight at the time, so now she was eighteen. By now, her HIV had developed into AIDS, the most advanced stage of HIV. In Valerie's case, it caused her to become so weak that she was unable to get out of bed.  
  
Since then, Mrs. Oio had been taking care of her daughter.  
  
Valerie couldn't go to school, so her education came from education channels on TV and from lessons from her mom, Mrs. Oio.  
  
She couldn't get out of bed to have fun, so she watched cartoons on TV.  
  
There were times when Mrs. Oio had unworthy thought that maybe it would be better if it was all over for Valerie, so Valerie wouldn't have to suffer the indignity of being in bed all of the time.  
  
But Mrs. Oio pushed that thought out of her head. A mom was supposed to always hope that her daughter would live.  
  
Of course, it didn't really help that a month before the dreaded "stupid babysitter" incident, Valerie's father had been caught in a car accident...  
  
That thought was cut off when Mrs. Oio heard people screaming.  
  
She set her groceries on the ground, and then headed in the direction of the screams.  
  
She couldn't believe her eyes when she got there.  
  
In front of her, multi-colored bears and multi-colored animals were running away from a gigantic black gorilla with glowing red eyes.  
  
The gorilla then spoke, causing Mrs. Oio to flinch in surprise.  
  
"I, No Heart, have finally won!" the gorilla shouted in glee. "Now that I have my Invisible Shield of Anti-Care-Bear-Stare artifact, there's nothing you can do! You all shall be _destroyed_, and I shall make sure no one in the world will ever care again!"  
  
That didn't sound good, Mrs. Oio thought. Obviously, someone needed to save those animals from that evil No Heart or whatever he said his name was.  
  
But Mrs. Oio couldn't figure out how to drive off the gorilla without being torn apart...until she spotted a cane someone had thrown away into a garbage can.  
  
As Mrs. Oio fished it out, she saw that it wasn't broken or faded. She couldn't for the life of her figure out why anyone would throw it away...until she saw a label on it: "I LUV ADOLF HITLER!"  
  
Mrs. Oio reasoned that someone threw this cane away because the person didn't want others to know of his/her Hitler-idolizing.  
  
But there was no time to dwell on it further.  
  
Mrs. Oio waited until an opening presented itself.  
  
One did, when the gorilla had a purple penguin cornered, about to tear it apart.  
  
Mrs. Oio rushed up behind the gorilla and clobbered it on the head.  
  
However, this didn't knock it out, and it turned to face her.  
  
"Who are you to defy me?" it screamed.  
  
"You leave those poor animals alone, you filthy creature!" Mrs. Oio screamed. She was a vegetarian and an animal-rights activist. In fact, that was what she did for a living: she was the head of an environmentalist/animal-rights/vegetarian organization. She did, however, respect the choices of those who did choose to eat meat. She wasn't a bigot.  
  
She was, however, determined to save those animals from this evil creature. Mrs. Oio knew it wasn't a real gorilla. Real gorillas didn't have red eyes.  
  
Mrs. Oio was proven right when the gorilla suddenly transformed into an evil-looking wizard whose face was hidden.  
  
The wizard threw something aside. Mrs. Oio reasoned it was that Invisibile Shield of Anti-Care-Bear Stare he'd spoken of earlier.  
  
"I, No Heart, don't need my shield to deal with a human," No Heart sneered.  
  
No Heart fingered his amulet, and Mrs. Oio tensed. Probably No Heart was going to use wizard magic on her. He did look like a wizard, after all.  
  
But No Heart had made a mistake casting aside his shield.  
  
"Care Bears...5...4...3...2...1..._Stare_!" cried one of the bears, a brown bear with a heart on his tummy. (Author's Note: This is Tenderheart Bear.)  
  
To Mrs. Oio's astonishment, the multicolored bears and animals shot a multicolored energy beam out of their chests, striking No Heart in the head.  
  
No Heart stumbled back.  
  
"Noooooooooooo!" he screamed. "I'd have won by now if it weren't for that pesky human! You Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins haven't seen the last of me, mark my words!!!"  
  
With that, No Heart transformed into a tornado, flying away.  
  
Mrs. Oio was confused, turning to the animals.  
  
"Care Bears? Care Bear Cousins?" she asked, confused.  
  
The animals nodded.  
  
"That's what we are," answered the brown bear who had called out for the Stare. "We live in Care-a-lot up in the clouds. It's our job to make sure that people on Earth keep caring and sharing their feelings. It's our job to make sure that love remains in this world."  
  
If anyone else had said that, Mrs. Oio would have had that person locked up in the loony bin for believing in places that existed in clouds.  
  
But these were very unusual creatures, Mrs. Oio could see. And if a transforming evil creature could exist, then there was no reason that good creatures like the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins couldn't.  
  
"May I have your names?" Mrs. Oio asked.  
  
Everyone nodded.  
  
"I'm Tenderheart Bear," the brown bear with a heart on his tummy said.  
  
"I'm Wish Bear," said an aqua or turqouise bear with a shooting star on her chest on his tummy.  
  
"I'm Birthday Bear," a yellow bear with a cupcake on his tummy introduce himself.  
  
"I'm Grumpy Bear," a blue bear with a raincloud on his tummy grumbled.  
  
"I'm Funshine Bear," answered a yellow bear with a sun on his tummy.  
  
"I'm Good Luck Bear," said a green bear with a four-leaf clover on his tummy.  
  
"I'm Bedtime Bear," a blue bear with a moon on his tummy introduced himself, yawning.  
  
"I'm Love-A-Lot Bear," answered a pinkish-reddish bear with two hearts on her tummy.  
  
"I'm Friend Bear," an orangish-yellowish bear with two flowers on his tummy introduced himself.  
  
A yellow bear with a lock on his tummy whispered into Friend Bear's ear.  
  
"He says his name's Secret Bear," Friend Bear informed Mrs. Oio.  
  
"I'm Share Bear," a purple bear with an ice cream soda or milkshake of some sort on her tummy said.  
  
"I'm Champ Bear," a yellow bear with a trophy on his tummy said.  
  
"I'm Cheer Bear," a pink bear with a rainbow on her tummy said.  
  
"I'm Harmony Bear," a purple bear with three hearts and musical notes on his tummy said.  
  
"I'm Surprise Bear," said a blue bear with a jack-in-the-box on his tummy.  
  
"I'm Daydream Bear," said a peach-colored bear with rainbow heart balloons on her tummy.  
  
"I'm Brave Heart Lion," an orange lion with a heart with a crown on his tummy introduced himself.  
  
"I'm Treat Heart Pig," a yellow pig with a ice cream cone on her tummy declared.  
  
"I'm Cozy Heart Penguin," answered a purple penguin with a heart with a ski hat on his tummy.  
  
"I'm Playful Heart Monkey," said an orange-brown monkey with a heart with party favors on his tummy.  
  
"I'm Gentle Heart Lamb," answered a green lamb with a pillow heart on her tummy.  
  
"I'm Lotsa Heart Elephant," said a pink elephant with a weight on his tummy.  
  
"I'm Proud Heart Cat," said a yellow cat with a star with a heart on her tummy.  
  
"I'm Swift Heart Rabbit," answered a blue rabbit with a heart with wings on his tummy.  
  
"And I'm Loyal Heart Dog," said a blue dog with a heart with a medal on his tummy.  
  
Mrs. Oio was a little bored with all these introductions.  
  
"But why are you all here?" Mrs. Oio asked.  
  
"You see," Cozy Heart Penguin began explaining, "we were trying to stop a gang of bullies from picking on a little boy. But there were so many bullies, it took all of us to convince them that they needed to express their displeasure with life in other ways."  
  
Mrs. Oio just nodded, still unsure whether or not this whole ordeal was just a dream.  
  
"But then No Heart showed up, and if you hadn't shown up as well, he wouldn't have cast aside his shield and we wouldn't have beaten him," Lotsa Heart Elephant concluded.  
  
"Yeah, you saved our lives!" exclaimed Love-a-Lot Bear.  
  
Everyone else began telling Mrs. Oio words of thanks.  
  
"Is there anything we can do to repay you?" Wish Bear asked.  
  
Mrs. Oio considered.  
  
Her daughter _did_ need entertainment.  
  
"There is one thing you can do..." Mrs. Oio told them...  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, No Heart was back in his lair, plotting.  
  
"They may have beaten me, but they left Care-A-Lot to be attended only by Grams Bear, Hugs Bear, Tugs Bear, True Heart Bear, and Noble Heart Horse," No Heart said to himself. "I've lost my shield, so their Stares might beat me..."  
  
Then, a plan began to form in No Heart's twisted little mind.  
  
No Heart had done some research on Mrs. Oio after she had helped foil his attempt to destroy the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins.  
  
Now, No Heart had an idea.  
  
"I'll use Mrs. Oio's daughter Valerie to help me destroy Care-a-lot and the Forest of Feelings! Without a home, those scoundrels will be too despondent to fight me! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"  
  
***  
  
To be continued...  
  
***  
  
E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	2. Part Two

For the Life of a Girl Part Two  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
  
Care Bears, Care Bear Cousins, and all related character copyrighted by American Greetings, DiC, and Nelvana. I made up Mrs. Oio and her daughter Valerie, however. Now, on with the story!  
  
***  
  
After only a little effort, Mrs. Oio managed to convince the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins to come to Mrs. Oio's house to entertain Valerie. This was after Mrs. Oio explained how sick Valerie was.  
  
"AIDS...poor girl..." Proud Heart Cat murmured sympathetically. "It must be murder on her self-esteem."  
  
"It certainly is," Mrs. Oio replied. "Now let's go. We don't have all day."  
  
With that, Mrs. Oio resumed walking home, while the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins followed.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, No Heart had changed into a bullet and shot himself towards the house.  
  
He got there before Mrs. Oio, and he changed back into his normal form.  
  
He immediately slipped inside Valerie's room, only to find Valerie asleep.  
  
"This won't do..." he muttered to himself.  
  
He then shouted, "Wake up, you stupid girl!"  
  
Valerie groaned and stirred awake.  
  
She almost screamed, but No Heart clamped a hand over her mouth.  
  
"If you promise not to scream, I'll tell you a way you can get rid of your AIDS," No Heart told her.  
  
At this, Valerie had some interest in her eyes. She _hated_ being so weak that her mother had to take care of her constantly.  
  
If there really was a way to cure her AIDS...  
  
"What is it?" she begged.  
  
No Heart laughed mentally. This teenager sure was trusting...  
  
"If you'll agree to be my servant, I will cure your AIDS myself," No Heart promised.  
  
Valerie was gullible. She immediately took the bait.  
  
"You've got yourself a deal!" she said, weakly shaking No Heart's hand.  
  
With that, No Heart immediately cast a spell on her.  
  
Soon, all of Valerie's caring was sucked out of her, and her eyes glowed red.  
  
"What do you wish, Master No Heart?" Valerie asked.  
  
"I will take you to Care-a-Lot now that those stupid bears and their cousins have left Care-a-Lot unguarded," No Heart instructed. "I want you to help me destroy it."  
  
With that, No Heart handed Valerie a gun that looked like it came straight out of Star Wars.  
  
In fact, No Heart had duplicated it straight from the movies, so it would shoot lasers when the trigger was pressed.  
  
Both No Heart and Valerie laughed wickedly.  
  
No Heart transformed into a bird, and Valerie climbed on his back.  
  
They set off together towards Care-a-Lot, so when other guests would arrive, they would find an empty house...  
  
***  
  
To be continued...  
  
***  
  
I'm sorry this chapter was so short, but I had to introduce the conflict. E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	3. Part Three

For the Life of a Girl Part Three  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
  
Care Bears, Care Bear Cousins, and all related character copyrighted by American Greetings, DiC, and Nelvana. I made up Mrs. Oio and her daughter Valerie, however. Now, on with the story!  
  
***  
  
When Mrs. Oio arrived home with the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins, she called out, "Honey, I'm home! I have friends here to entertain you!"  
  
There was no answer, but Mrs. Oio wasn't the least bit surprised by this fact.  
  
After all, Valerie was very weak. Perhaps she was asleep.  
  
"Wait here," Mrs. Oio instructed the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins, as she went upstairs.  
  
Upon opening the door to Valerie's room, Mrs. Oio was horrified to discover that Valerie was missing.  
  
Mrs. Oio, fearing the worst, immediately screamed bloody murder.  
  
The Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins rushed upstairs, fearing that No Heart had returned to take revenge on Mrs. Oio.  
  
They were equally horrified when Mrs. Oio explained the real situation.  
  
"A girl so weak that she couldn't get out of bed couldn't have left on her own," Champ Bear reasoned.  
  
"So No Heart must have kidnapped her!" Lotsa Heart Elephant declared.  
  
"Lotsa Heart, you're jumping to conclusions," Bright Heart Racoon told Lotsa Heart, reasonable as usual. "Let's go back to Care-a-Lot and use our equipment to track Valerie down."  
  
Everyone else nodded.  
  
"Oh, please hurry!" Mrs. Oio shouted to them as they left to get their Cloudmobiles...  
  
***  
  
What the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins saw when they got there, however, was a complete disaster.  
  
Care-a-Lot was in ruins. Broken wood was everywhere, and there were burn marks in certain places.  
  
The Caring Meter was totally wrecked.  
  
The Cloudkeeper could be seen trying to clean up, but he'd only fixed about 13% of Care-a-Lot.  
  
"Who...could've done this?" Funshine Bear asked, stunned.  
  
Noble Heart Horse, True Heart Bear, Grams Bear, Hugs Bear, and Tugs Bear walked up to our heroes.  
  
"No Heart and some girl that was with him," Grams Bear sighed sadly. "We tried to stop them, but they were armed...we were nearly killed..."  
  
At this, Grams Bear broke down into sobs, along with Hugs and Tugs.  
  
"But who was this girl?" Good Luck Bear asked.  
  
"Her name..." True Heart Bear began solemnly... "she said...was Valerie."  
  
Everyone else gasped.  
  
"That's the name of Mrs. Oio's daughter!" Proud Heart Cat gasped.  
  
"No Heart must have put her under a spell or something, to suck out her caring!" Tenderheart Bear declared. "Cloudkeeper, do you think you can fix Care-a-Lot while we go take care of No Heart?"  
  
The kindly old man smiled and said, "Yes, but it'll take a few days. Lucky for me No Heart completely didn't know of my existence." (Author's Note: This explains why No Heart, when listing the only people who would guard Care-a-Lot in chapter one, didn't mention the Cloudkeeper.)  
  
"Good," Brave Heart Lion said, nodding. "Now come on! We need to head to No Heart's lair and rescue Valerie!"  
  
***  
  
Eventually, our heroes made it inside No Heart's lair, trembling with fear.  
  
This was understandable, as No Heart was a powerful enemy.  
  
However, they wouldn't give up.  
  
They had to save Valerie...for Mrs. Oio's sake.  
  
They looked around.  
  
The place was dark, as usual, and very foreboding.  
  
Our heroes soon found No Heart and Valerie in the center room of the castle.  
  
They were laughing to themselves.  
  
"We destroyed Care-a-Lot, and there isn't a thing they can do about it!" No Heart said, tears in his eyes from laughing so heard.  
  
Tenderheart Bear led our heroes into the room, shouting, "Not so fast, No Heart!"  
  
No Heart and Valerie spun around in surprise.  
  
"What? But I thought the destruction of your home would leave you too despondent to fight the forces of uncaring!" No Heart shouted.  
  
"You can't get rid of us that easily!" Loyal Heart Dog declared.  
  
"And how do you plan to free Valerie from my spell?" No Heart inquired.  
  
"5...4...3...2...1..." the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins chanted. "Care Bear..._Stare_!"  
  
The Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins all hit Valerie with multicolored beams from their tummies.  
  
Valerie stumbled back, and then her eyes stopped glowing red.  
  
She was back to normal...in more ways than one, as Grumpy Bear soon pointed out.  
  
"She's standing on her own!" Grumpy Bear pointed out. "In fact, come to think of it, she was standing on her own when she was still evil..."  
  
"That was my doing!" No Heart shouted in anguish. "I had to remove the AIDS from her, which was part of who she was, in order to remove her caring! Now you've put caring back into her, but she's normal!"  
  
Valerie grinned, and then swiped the necklace from around No Heart, which was the source of his magic powers.  
  
"Give that back!" No Heart pleaded.  
  
"Get the police!" Valerie instructed our heroes. "I'll take it from here..."  
  
***  
  
No Heart was soon put into jail, and Mrs. Oio was profusely thanking him at his cell for taking the AIDS out of her.  
  
"But I never intended to do any good!" No Heart protested. "I meant to rid the world of caring, not to cure some sick little girl of an uncurable disease!"  
  
"It doesn't matter," Mrs. Oio said, hugging No Heart.  
  
"_Get off_!" No Heart screamed, throwing Mrs. Oio away.  
  
"I'll be back every day to fix you some heart-shaped cookies as my thanks," Mrs. Oio replied, winking, and then leaving the jail.  
  
No Heart hated hearts.  
  
So the jailer next heard him scream, "_Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo_!"  
  
***  
  
The End  
  
***  
  
E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


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